


The Show Must Go On

by nermansherman



Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: Dancing, Show Choir, Singing, Zombies, choir, god i love show choir
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-02
Updated: 2020-07-16
Packaged: 2021-03-05 01:34:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 12,328
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25036306
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nermansherman/pseuds/nermansherman
Summary: Fairy Tail is the top show choir at Magnolia High, and its director, Makarov, has more planned than just the usual season. With a zombie themed show choir set, two mid-year transfers, and a goal to end the season on the most renowned stage in all of Fiore, Fairy Tail is in for one wild ride. Show choir AUThis is an updated version of this fic. The original will only be posted on ffn, under the title "The Show Must Go On (Older Version)" and under the username I use here.





	1. Chapter 1

The room was buzzing with an anticipation that only grew as more people arrived. It was finally front loading day, the first day of show choir season. The members of Fairy Tail were milling around the choir room, catching up with each other after winter break, and waiting.

“Fairy Tail!” Everyone stopped talking as Erza, one of the co-presidents of the choir, spoke. “The choreographer will be here at 2, so we have about a half hour to stretch and warm up. But, before we do, there are a few ground rules we must go over.”

“Number one, our time with the choreographer is limited, so we have to utilize it as best we can.” said Jellal, the other co-president. “This means that you will have to stay quiet during rehearsal, and only seniors and the dance captains can ask questions. We must learn as much as we can in the short time we have.”

“Number two, what the dance captains say goes. If they clean or change a move, that is what the new move is. It does not matter if the original move was something else, that is now the move. Do not, and I repeat, DO NOT ask the choreographer about it. He does not have the time for that.”

“Number three, if you do not understand a part of the dance, ask a dance captain. That is what they are here for. Asking someone else may result in you inadvertently learning the wrong move.”

“And finally, Jellal and I have decided upon a punishment system for this year, and Makarov has approved it. We will keep a running count of tally marks here.” Erza pointed to the whiteboard on the wall to her right. “Any time the choir is too loud, or not on task, or anything of that sort, anyone is allowed to add a tally mark. Each mark represents one lap around the building.” Everyone groaned. “However, you also have the ability to earn back tallies. If you stay focused and quiet, or have a good run through of the song or set, a tally can be removed, but only by myself, Jellal, Makarov, or the dance captains.”

“Any questions?” Jellal asked. “No? Then please give your attention to Loke and Cana, your dance captains!” Jellal and Erza joined the rest of the choir on the risers and the dance captains walked to the front of the room.

“What’s up, guys? Who’s ready for some stretching?” Cana exclaimed, upbeat. The choir cheered as Loke played Lizzo’s “Truth Hurts” over the speakers in the choir room. The brunette started with some toe touches, her palms flat on the floor, before moving on to arm stretches. Fairy Tail followed along with relative ease.

After the stretches were over, Cana let Loke take the lead, having the choir run a lap around the school while singing “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.” Then, once everyone had returned to the room, he made them do step ups on the risers for thirty seconds. At this point, most of the choir was panting as they were out of shape, so Loke called for a water break.

“Holy crap, is every rehearsal like this?” Lucy asked. She had transferred to Magnolia High that year, and had never even heard of show choir before then. Natsu laughed.

“God, no! They’ve barely scratched the surface!” The pink-haired boy had not even broken a sweat, while his blonde friend was almost gasping for air.

“He’s exaggerating a bit, but this is pretty basic stuff. It gets more intense as the season progresses, since we all get more in shape,” Gray said, coming over. Lucy looked at him, less than relieved.

“It’s really not that bad once you get used to it, Lu. We all have the benefit of having been in Fairy Tail before, so we know what to expect. Wendy and Romeo are having a hard time, too,” Levy pointed out, gesturing to the two sophomores drinking water like their lives depended on it. 

“Oh? That’s reassuring, then. Thanks, Lev,” Lucy said. Her blue haired friend grinned in response.

“Y’know, I wonder how Juvia is doing with this. I’ve heard Phantom Lord does stuff way different from us,” Gray said, more to himself than anyone else.

“Why? ‘Cuz you like her?” Natsu teased. Gray smacked him upside the head.

“No, flame brain, it’s because she’s new. I was also wondering about Gajeel, if you really wanna know.” Natsu didn’t seem convinced, but accepted his friend’s reasoning. The two aforementioned people were, in fact, talking to each other across the room. No one else was around them. 

“I’m gonna go talk to them,” Levy decided. True to her word, she walked over to the two new Fairies, who were deep in conversation with each other. 

“Hey, guys!” Juvia and Gajeel turned to see Levy grinning madly in front of them.

“Uh, hi?” Gajeel said.

“How’s it going?”

“Good, I guess?” Juvia answered, not really clear on why this girl they had never spoken to was suddenly checking up on them.

“That’s good to hear! Sometimes the transition to show choir season can be a little hard on people, especially transfers, since everything is different. Lucy is having a bit of a hard time, so I wanted to see how you guys were doing!” Levy said, pointing over her shoulder to Lucy, who was now talking to Lisanna. “Oh, I’m Levy, by the way! I don’t think we’ve actually met yet.”

“I’m Juvia. It’s nice to meet you,” Juvia said, extending her hand for Levy to shake, which she did.

“I’m Gajeel.” He didn’t seem like he wanted to talk, so Levy turned her attention back to Juvia.

“So, what was Phantom Lord like as a show choir? I saw you guys last year at the Margaret High competition and you were really good!”

“Well, we usually start the set earlier in the school year, around October, instead of in January like you guys do. Or, well, like  _ we _ do, I suppose, since we are in Fairy Tail now,” answered Juvia. Levy giggled at her self-correction. “You all seem much closer than we ever were. It’s almost like a family.”

“Huh. I never knew other choirs weren’t as close as we are. I thought everyone had sleepovers and hung out together. That’s so interesting. Could you tell me—” Levy didn’t get to finish her sentence, as Natsu screamed “GILDARTS!” and everyone turned to look at the orange-haired man walking into the choir room.

“Gildarts!”

“Good to see you, man!”

“Hey! How have you been?” 

“Who’s he?” Lucy asked Natsu.

“Our choreographer, of course!” 

Lucy eyed his prosthetic left arm and leg. “Choreographer? How can he dance with only two real limbs?”

“Oh, trust me, once you’ve seen him move, you realize the prostheses are just as real as the other half of his body.” She didn’t have time to think about that before Gildarts spoke.

“So, I hear you all have a zombie themed set?” Fairy Tail cheered, thrilled about the theme. “Well, as fun as that is, I’m still figuring out most of the zombie parts, so we’re going to start with the opener, the non-zombie song.” The choir groaned, but they were still very excited to start the set.

“Alright, guys! It’s time to get to work! Remember what Jellal and Erza told us earlier!” Cana called out, making her way to the floor in front of the risers. Everyone else followed suit, and she grinned at the sight in the mirror. She had wanted to be the dance captain for Fairy Tail for as long as she could remember. As a kid, her father would often drag her along to rehearsals if he couldn’t find anyone to watch her. Fairy Tail had always welcomed her and felt like her second family, and becoming dance captain felt like the perfect job for her. She could live up to her father’s dance skill while spending time with people she loved. It was a win-win.

“We’re gonna start with a slide out with your arms like this,” Gildarts said, beginning the seven-hour rehearsal. “This will be mirrored, so the left side should…”

* * *

“I take back what I said earlier. I take it back! That was nothing compared to what Gildarts was making us do!” cried Lucy. She was lying spread out on the floor, trying to catch her breath. “I don’t think I’ve even been this sweaty in my entire life!”

“Don’t worry, Lucy,” Erza said, completely ignoring the fact that the blonde was talking to Natsu. “Front loading is one of the hardest rehearsals we have. The others are much shorter, and you’ll get into shape quickly.” Lucy tried to ignore the wound to her ego as Erza walked away and Loke took her place.

“Make sure to stretch when you get home,” he said, helping her up. “You know, I could help if you wanted.” The mischievous wink he sent Lucy’s way didn’t make her blush like he wanted it to.

“Uh, thanks. I’m good,” she replied, awkwardly. Loke shrugged and walked away.

“To each their own.”

“What was that all about?” Lucy asked, again addressing Natsu, only to find that he was talking with Gildarts and not next to her like she thought.

“Oh, that? Loke’s a bit of a flirt. I’ve told him to keep it in his pants, at least with the Fairy Tail girls, but he just can’t help himself,” sighed Cana. “He does have a point, though. You’re gonna be super sore tomorrow, but stretching will help a bit. I wanted to do some cool-down stretches but Makarov said that he doesn’t want us to stay later than 9.”

“That makes sense. Maybe if we started rehearsal a few minutes earlier we could still do those stretches,” Lucy suggested. Cana got a strange look on her face, and Lucy quickly backpedaled. “I mean, not that I’m trying to tell you how to do your job! You’re really good at it! What would I know, I just moved here!”

“No, no! That’s a good idea! I was just thinking about how Makarov would feel about it, and I think he’d be okay with it. I’m gonna ask him right now! Thanks Lucy!” Cana quickly walked away on a mission to find the choir director.

“Natsu! Come on!” Said boy was still deep in conversation with Gildarts, and it looked like they were discussing a dance, as they kept doing bits and pieces of what they had learned that day. Lucy sighed and grabbed her stuff, electing to wait outside of the hot, sweaty choir room.

“Waiting for Natsu?” Lucy looked up to find Lisanna leaning against the wall.

“Yeah. We live pretty close together, so I’m his ride home.”

“Yikes. I don’t envy you. Has he thrown up in your car yet?”

“No, thank god. I’m not looking forward to the day he does.” 

Lisanna laughed, imagining the beating he would get. “Well, if you’re his ride, you should probably know that any time Gildarts is here the two of them will talk about everything under the sun.” The white haired girl could see Lucy’s confusion, so she continued. “When Natsu was little, his dad disappeared for a couple years. Gildarts took him in until his bio dad came back and explained everything. Natsu went back to live with him, but he and Gildarts are still super close and have a father-son bond.”

“Wow, I had no idea. I’m glad they’re still so close. They really seem to care about one another.”

“Yeah, they do. But don’t think badly of Natsu’s dad. What happened wasn’t his fault and Natsu has forgiven him.”

“Oh, of course not! I figured the same; if he went back to live with his dad then he can’t be that bad,” Lucy said.

“I’m glad you understand. The funny thing about the whole situation is that technically, Cana and Natsu are siblings!”

“They’re  _ what _ ? That’s so crazy! I didn’t even know Cana was his daughter!”

“Well, they do have different last names. I’m not sure why, I’ve never bothered to ask.”

“Never bothered to ask what?” Natsu interjected. He and Gildarts were in the doorway of the choir room, across from Lucy and Lisanna.

“Eh, it’s not that important,” Lisanna said, checking her phone and walking away. “Bye guys! Thanks for keeping me company while I was waiting for Elfman to pull up, Lucy!”

“No problem!” she replied. “Come on, Natsu. I wanna go home.”

“Nooooooooo not the carrrrrrrr,” he moaned. Lucy grabbed his wrist and began dragging him out of the school.

“You can walk if you’d rather do that, but it isn’t my fault if you get mugged!”

Gildarts sighed and laughed. “Kids these days.”

“Wild, aren’t they? But they still remind me of when we were in Fairy Tail.”

“Ya got that right, old man,” he chuckled, turning to greet Makarov. “Did Cana find you?”

“She did. She’s going places, you know?”

“That’s my daughter for ya.”

“Dad! I’m heading home!” Cana called, half-in and half-out of the building.

“Be there soon!” he called back, and she let the door close behind her. “They’re in for a hell of a ride, aren’t they?”

Makarov chuckled. “It isn’t Fairy Tail if it isn’t crazy.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hiiiiiii! Here’s the first chapter! It has a different feel than the other chapters (idk why), but I’m super excited about it, in case you can’t tell just from the exclamation points!
> 
> Fun fact: this is actually based on my experiences of show choir front loading from earlier this year! In fact, most of this story will be based on my show choir season from this year! Fairy Tail’s set is the 2018-19 set of the top mixed choir at my school, so there is a real zombie themed show choir set out there. I was not in that set, as this was my first year in one of the top-level choirs at my school (and I’m in the unisex one, not the mixed one).
> 
> Pretty much everything in here is accurate to my school’s show choir program, and I tried to reference how we do things differently than most other choirs in my state. In case you can’t already tell, I absolutely LOVE show choir. (I’ve wanted to be in my choir since I was in sixth grade.)
> 
> Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and are as excited about this story as I am! Feel free to leave a review or check out my other stories on here!
> 
> (Also, shoutout to my best friend for proofreading this. I love you, bitch.)
> 
> -nerman


	2. Chapter 2

“Natsu! Hurry up!” Lucy shouted out the open window, honking her car’s horn. “We’re gonna be late!” The door of Natsu’s house banged open and he came running down the sidewalk, backpack barely over his shoulder, both shoes untied, and shoving a banana into his mouth.

“Ah oing!” he replied with a mouth full of banana. Lucy translated that to “I’m coming!” and rolled her eyes as he entered her car. He swallowed before speaking again. “God, what are you trying to do, wake up the whole street?”

“Considering I was trying to wake  _ you _ up, it’s a miracle I only woke up the street and not the rest of the neighborhood,” she shot back, pulling out of his driveway. “And put your seatbelt on!” He groaned and complied, the motion sickness already setting in. 

It could be said that Lucy was not having a good morning. From waking up late and still sore from front loading three days ago to her best friend about to make them even more late on the first day of second semester, she was less than pleased. Not to mention, said best friend looked like he was moments away from throwing up his banana. Lucy glared at Natsu and he gulped, trying not to make a face at the taste of swallowing his own bile. Satisfied in the safety of the inside of her car, she went back to grumbling about mornings and traffic and her sore calves as she pulled into the student parking lot of Magnolia High. 

She parked as quickly as she could, further away from the school than she would have liked, and the two friends booked it. Lucy glanced at her watch. 7:17. They had three minutes to get inside and get to their homerooms. Backpacks slamming into their backs with every step, they raced into the school, holding doors for each other before going their separate ways to their homerooms, Natsu bolting down lower K hall and Lucy running up the nearest set of stairs. She thought her calves were burning before but by _ god _ did they hurt now, since MH stairs were perfectly terrible, being slightly too short to comfortably take one at a time, but long enough that most students couldn’t take two steps in one go. 

Lucy could see her homeroom’s open door and checked the time again. 7:20. Her watch was slightly ahead of MH’s bell system, so she knew she had seconds to make it to class on time. Right as her foot crossed the threshold of the room, the bell rang. She wasn’t late!

“Miss Heartfilia? Are you aware that tardies don’t count on the first few days of the semester?”

Yeah, Lucy was  _ not  _ having a good morning.

* * *

Lucy’s morning was made slightly better by having a not-messed-up schedule (Gray and Levy had told her horror stories about the scheduling at Magnolia High, which was famously terrible). Her morning improved even more when she walked into AP Literature to see her other best friend already sitting in the front row.

“Levy!” 

“Lu!”

Lucy quickly slid into the seat next to Levy and looked at the book her friend was reading. “ _ Historia de Latine _ ?”

“It’s about the history of Latin and how it developed,” she explained.

“Don’t you already take Latin?” Lucy didn’t see the point of reading a book about a class she was already taking.

“Yes, but this isn’t teaching me the language, like the class does.” Levy huffed, she thought the reason she was reading it was pretty obvious.

“Ah, I see.” Lucy did not see, but didn’t want to push it. The bell rang, and their teacher, Miss Kamika, entered the room.

She walked around the room, passing out multiple pieces of colored paper. “The blue paper is the syllabus, the green is the list of books we’ll be reading, and the red one is a permission slip for parts of movies we will be watching this semester. It needs to be signed by a parent or guardian and returned to me by next Monday.”

Levy read the list of books and groaned when she saw  _ Hamlet _ on the list. “Noooooooo. I can’t withstand another English teacher teaching Shakespeare!”

“Why? I thought you loved Shakespeare?” Lucy asked, lost.

“I do! But English teachers teach as if his works are books and not plays, and focus so much on individual words and lines instead of the big picture, which is what Shakespeare is all about!” Levy exclaimed, clearly very upset with this. “I’ve tried to explain this to a number of teachers and none of them take me seriously!”

Lucy tried very hard not to say “Maybe because you’re ranting like a crazy person” and was thankfully saved by Miss Kamika beginning to go over the syllabus. The two girls tuned in, as they truly did love literature, even if the Fiorian school system sometimes failed them. Lucy’s morning was finally going better.

* * *

Juvia, on the other hand, was in the opposite position. She had woken up five minutes early and had some delicious leftover blueberry muffins (she reminded herself that she needed to use that recipe again). When she got to school, Gajeel was actually on time and they had hung out in their homeroom before the bell rang. It was only after their homeroom teacher had passed out their schedules did her morning take a turn for the worse.

“How is  _ literally _ every class wrong? I didn’t know that was possible!” Juvia said, staring at the piece of paper.

“Well, Magnolia High  _ is _ known for how bad it is at scheduling,” Gajeel replied, content with his own schedule.

“I’m going to spend all day in the guidance office at this rate!”

Just then an announcement came over the PA system. “Good morning, Magnolia High! Welcome back!” the entirely too-cheery voice of Principal Faust said. “Today is the first day of second semester, and you should all be receiving your schedules right now. If there are any scheduling errors, please come to the guidance office during that period. For example, if I am supposed to be in Introduction to Art first period, but I have AP Art History instead, I would go to the guidance office during period one. If I have another incorrect class later, I would go during that period only. Again, you can only fix one class at a time. You cannot try to fix multiple classes at one time. You absolutely must address one schedule issue at a time. Anyway! I hope you all have a good first day back! Faust out!”

Juvia groaned. “Please, someone just kill me now.”

“If you die who am I supposed to hang out with?” Gajeel asked.

“Hmm, you have a good point. I guess we could make a murder-suicide pact. OR you could make friends, you dolt!” While yes, Juvia was in a bad mood, she was sick of Gajeel refusing to talk to other people. They had been at Magnolia High for a couple months and he had made a whole zero friends. 

Gajeel scoffed. “You’re one to talk. How many friends have you made?”

“More than you!”

“It’s not hard to have more than zero friends.”

Juvia huffed and crossed her arms. “At least I actually talk to people if they talk to me, Lug Nut.” The bell rang before Gajeel could think of a comeback for that. “I’ll see you later, hopefully.”

“You’d better update me on your guidance office adventures, Rainwoman,” he said, leaving the room. 

Juvia sighed, this was gonna be a long day. It wasn’t until she saw the line for the guidance office that she realized just  _ how _ long. It spilled out into the student center. She sighed again, and went to the end of the line, pulling out her phone to update her friend.

_ Seems like half the student body is here. Gonna be a while _

Gajeel’s response was almost immediate.  **_yikes, gl w that_ **

Juvia was  _ not _ having a good morning.

* * *

Gajeel sent Juvia his response before walking into his first period class, Spanish 5/6. For whatever reason, MH liked to label a lot of their classes with semester numbers. Spanish 5/6 was the third year of Spanish offered, so people in this class had already taken four semesters of Spanish. Gajeel didn’t get it, but it didn’t really matter to him. He found a seat in the back corner of the classroom and set his stuff down, prepared to nap through the period. His hopes were dashed when someone plopped their backpack on the desk next to his. Gajeel looked up to see an equally-displeased pink haired boy.

“You stole my spot.”

“Last I checked, I was here first, Pinky.”

“It’s  _ salmon _ !” he exclaimed. “Wait, you look familiar. Oh, I so know your name! Ummmm, Gryder? Grandeeny? Garfield?”

“It’s  _ Gajeel _ . And why do you know who I am?” 

‘Pinky’ put his backpack next to his chair and sat down. “Because you’re in Fairy Tail, too! I’m Natsu!”

“Well, Nasty, I’m trying to nap here, so if you don’t mind, I’d like you to shut up now.” Gajeel put his head back down on the desk and turned away from his disturbance/new seatmate.

Natsu frowned. “It’s Natsu.”

“Cool.”

Natsu frowned even more. Gajeel was a member of Fairy Tail. Why was he being so rude? Fairy Tail was like family. “Look, I don’t know why you’re in such a bad mood, but we’re both in Fairy Tail, so we’re family, y’know?”

Gajeel put his head back up. “No, we aren’t. We just sing and dance together. And if you don’t shut up, I  _ will _ punch you.” Gajeel’s phone vibrated, displaying a text from Juvia.

_ Why do I feel like you’re about to beat someone up? Don’t do it _

He sighed, knowing she was right. It was probably best to not start off his first full semester by getting into a fight. 

“Who was that? Your girlfriend?”

Gajeel grabbed Natsu by the white scarf around his neck and raised his arm to punch him.

“Hola, clase! ¿Como estas todos?” said Señor Connell, unknowingly stopping a fight. Gajeel dropped Natsu and slumped back in his seat, putting his head back on the desk.

“She’s not my girlfriend,” he muttered. Natsu nodded, wide-eyed. No one had ever nearly fought him and then suddenly stopped. And Natsu  _ really _ wanted to fight him now. The only thing that stopped him (aside from their Spanish teacher) was the look in Gajeel’s eyes as he prepared to punch Natsu. Clearly, the girl that had texted him meant a lot to him and should not be joked about. Natsu knew that look all too well himself. He had been in many a fight for the same reason. So Natsu simply let Gajeel nap, and tuned out Señor Connell.

* * *

Juvia had finally made her way into the actual guidance office itself when her Gajeel-sense started tingling. After shooting off a quick “don’t kill anyone” text to him, she sighed for probably the millionth time that morning. She was bored out of her mind. Sure, she could try talking to the people around her, but Juvia was not the most socially outgoing person, especially not after what happened at her old school. She shivered just thinking about Oak Town Senior High.

“Cold?”

Juvia turned to see a  _ really _ cute guy standing behind her in line, who looked vaguely familiar. She just didn’t know where she had seen him before. Also, why was he wearing an unbuttoned shirt? Surely that was against the dress code, not to mention that MH was freezing on a good day. How was he not cold?

“You alright?” Juvia snapped out of her thoughts to see him waiting for an answer.

“Hmm? Oh, yeah, sorry. Zoned out there for a second,” she responded. Then she did a double-take. “Where did your shirt go?”

The boy looked down to see that his shirt was, in fact, not on his body anymore. “Dammit!” He bent down to pick it up and dropped his backpack so he could put it back on. “That happens a lot, actually. Dunno how I managed to do that with my backpack on though.”

“Do you not get dress coded?”

“Nah, not really. Everyone’s pretty used to it at this point.” He straightened back up (well, as much as he could with a backpack on). “Anyway, the name’s Gray.”

“Juvia.”

“I know, you’re the transfer from Phantom Lord. Well, one, anyway.”

Juvia was surprised he recognized her. “How did you know I was in Phantom?”

Gray chuckled. “I’m in Fairy Tail with you.”

Juvia gasped. “You’re friends with that pink-haired boy!  _ That’s _ why you looked so familiar!” She was pleased with her deductive skills, elementary as they may be. 

“Yup. Couldn’t get rid of him if I tried.” Juvia nodded at Gray’s statement and the conversation reached a lull. She didn’t really know how to respond to that. Making friends was harder than she thought. Gajeel was actually saving himself a lot of trouble by just refusing to talk to people. She could take his approach, but she truly did want to make new friends, whereas he seemed content with just her. 

“What’s going on up there?” Gray asked, lightly knocking on the side of her head. Juvia turned and smiled, not even realizing the frown that had crossed her face.

“I’m thinking about how I’m about to spend my whole day here because my entire schedule is wrong.” Juvia quickly came up with a half-truth, since “Oh, just thinking about how hard making friends is and how my best friend doesn’t want to branch out” didn’t seem like the best answer to his question. 

Gray whistled. “That’s rough, even for MH. And I should know. I haven't not had a messed up schedule. At this point I hope my streak holds out, just for the gag.” 

“That’s the stupidest reasoning I’ve ever heard,” Juvia laughed.

Gray pouted, before turning Juvia away from him and pointing at the front of the line, which was now her. “It’s your turn, Juvia.”

She moved toward the office of her assigned counselor and turned back toward him. “Wish me luck!” He shot her a thumbs up as she walked in, praying that her counselor would make an exception to let her fix her schedule in one go.

* * *

Wendy was excited when she walked into her first period class. Not just because she loved school and enjoyed the start of every semester, but because it was a theatre class, and Wendy adored theatre. It was beginning theatre, because she hadn’t discovered her love of theatre until freshman year, but she was excited all the same. She waved at her teacher, who was standing outside the classroom door.

“Good morning!” Wendy exclaimed.

“And to you!” her teacher replied, tipping the white stetson she was wearing. “There’s a seating chart on the board. Go ahead and find your seat!” 

Wendy smiled and walked in and nearly tripped down the slight incline. She caught her balance and looked around to see that the classroom looked like a small lecture hall, with only five or six rows of chairs that were bolted to the ground and had fold down desks. There was a small platform at the front of the room, which wasn’t slanted. There was also a projection on the wall of a list of names with numbers beside them. Upon closer inspection, there were stickers on the arm of each chair with a number. She went to the front of the room and saw her name next to number 14. Wendy quickly found her seat and sat down next to a girl with shoulder length white hair.

“Hi! I’m Wendy!” she said, sticking her hand out for the girl to shake. 

The girl looked at it disdainfully before delicately shaking it. “I’m Carla.” Carla retracted her hand and folded it back in her lap.

Wendy, not one to be discouraged, tried again. “Your dress is so pretty! I love that shade of pink!”

Carla sniffed lightly before responding. “Thank you. I like yours. The blue matches your hair.” She almost smiled but crossed her legs instead.

“Oh, thanks!” Wendy replied, tugging on one of her ponytails. “It’s kinda hard coordinating colors when you have blue hair.”

Carla laughed quietly and covered her mouth with her hand. “I can imagine. White hair is easy, as it goes with just about anything.” 

“Okay, class!” their teacher said, standing on the stage at the front of the room and clapping her hands. “Welcome to Beginning Theatre! I’m Miss Daphne, your teacher! Let’s go out in the hallway and get to know each other, shall we?” She gestured to the door, and the class left the room.

“What do you think we’re going to do?” Wendy whispered to Carla.

“I would assume activities to get to know each other better.”

“Circle up!” called Miss Daphne. The class gave it their best attempt, which resulted in a shape closer to a bean combined with an ellipse than a circle. “Close enough, I guess. Anyway, one of the most important parts of theatre is networking. That means you have to know and remember people’s names! Today, we’re gonna play a name game. Say your name and something you like that starts with that letter. For example, my name is Miss Daphne and I like dogs. Then, the next person will say my name and favorite thing, and then their name and favorite thing. Got it?” She looked expectantly at Wendy, who was sitting next to her.

“So, I say your name and then mine?”

“Yes’m! I’m Miss Daphne and I like dogs.”

“Okay. Um, she’s Miss Daphne, and she likes dogs. I’m Wendy, and I like, uh...” Wendy couldn’t think of anything she liked that started with ‘w’. “I like wind?” Miss Daphne smiled at Wendy and turned her gaze to Carla, who was sitting to Wendy’s left.

“Miss Daphne likes dogs, Wendy likes wind, I’m Carla and I like cats,” she said smoothly. 

The next person started and Wendy winced when they said that she liked wind. She didn’t have anything against wind, but she was embarrassed that she couldn't think of a better ‘w’ word like ‘waffles’ or something.

“It’s not that big of a deal,” Carla whispered. “No one cares. Don’t overthink it.”

Wendy forced herself to take a deep breath and exhaled rather forcefully. “Thanks,” she whispered back, visibly more relaxed. “I’m not great at talking to people.”

“You were doing just fine earlier.”

Wendy giggled and smiled at Carla, who smiled back.

* * *

Erza would readily describe herself as a morning person. She liked being productive, and the more she got done, the better. Waking up early meant that she could start (and consequently finish) tasks as soon as possible. This was the exact reason she had been the junior class president and was now senior class president and one of the co-presidents of Fairy Tail. People trusted her to get things done. And when Erza could not get things done, she got upset.  _ Scary _ upset.

“Faust, surely you know that I am capable of taking this many AP classes without needing a study hall,” Erza said, slamming her hands on his desk.

“I don’t doubt that, Miss Scarlet, but your schedule simply will not let you take all of these classes. There are too many conflicts, unless you choose to not take one of them,” the poor principal said, distressed. He was dabbing his forehead with his handkerchief, blotting up the sweat that had collected there.

“I refuse to do that. There must be some other way to allow me to take all of these classes. This is my last chance to take many of these courses, and I wish to take them all.”

“Yes, I understand, but this  _ cannot _ be done unless you drop one of them.” Faust was not budging, because there was literally no other option. 

Erza had to mentally restrain herself from causing her principal bodily harm. It wasn’t his fault he didn’t understand how badly she wanted to take all of these classes. She was going to have to get creative.

“What if I  _ did _ take that study hall”—Faust slumped with relief—“but I used it to study one of the classes I want to take?” Erza suggested. Faust realized he slumped too soon. “I could sit in the back of that teacher’s class while they taught another class, and I could ask them for help when they weren’t busy.”

Faust was not expecting this proposition. “Well, actually, I don’t think it’s a terrible idea. It would depend a lot on the teacher and the course. If you come back to me sometime before the end of the week with a teacher willing to do this, I will allow it. Otherwise, figure out what class you are going to drop.”

“Thank you very much, Principal Faust. I will be sure to get back to you as soon as possible.” And with those parting words, Erza was off. 

* * *

As soon as the bell signaling the end of first period rang, Gajeel woke up with a start. The dumbass next to him had been kind enough to let him sleep, but clearly not nice enough to wake him up for the passing period. He grumbled and grabbed his stuff, seeing that he had some missed texts from Juvia.

_ I’m so bored, oh my god please save me _

__ _ Hello? Lug nut? _

__ _ Gajeel? _

__ _ Rude, but you’re probably asleep, knowing you _

__ _ Went in, they won’t let me change my whole schedule right now (shocker) so I’m gonna stick around here and not go to my class so I can maybe make it to my next one _

__ _ OH and I made a friend! One point to Juvia! _

**** **_i was asleep, and congrats, rainwoman, ur soooooo special_ **

Gajeel replied to her texts and walked into AP Chem. He was hoping to have a repeat of last period’s nap and slid into a seat in the last row before a blue haired girl sat next to him.

“Juvia? I thought you said you were gonna—you are not Juvia.”

“No, I’m not,” she replied. “I’m Levy.” Gajeel gave no response. “We talked at frontloading?” It came out like a question, even though it had indeed happened.

Gajeel was really  _ not _ in the mood to deal with sitting next to another person trying to make conversation again, so he picked up his backpack and moved to a different lab table. Levy followed not long after. He moved again, this time up two rows and across the room. She went with him. After moving for the third time, he was done.

“What do you want?!” he exclaimed, turning toward her and throwing his hands on the table. Surprisingly, she didn’t flinch.

“I want to be your friend.” Levy said it as if it was a thing people casually said to one another and like the person she was saying it to was not a foot taller than her with blood red eyes and a multitude of facial piercings.

“Yeah, I don’t do friends.”

“What about Juvia?”

“She is the exception. The  _ only _ exception. I do not want to be your friend, and I do not want to sit next to you, Shrimp,” he said bitingly. He would have moved seats once more had it not been for their teacher walking in. What was it with teachers and entering at the exact-right moment to prevent a fight or something? (Gajeel was not going to fight the tiny being next to him that qualified as a human. Sure, he may not want to make friends, but he had common sense. He was pretty sure that if he punched her, she would shatter, she looked so delicate.)

“Welcome, guys! I’m Mr. Azuma, in case you couldn’t already tell from the name on your schedules and the sign outside my door. I just want to go over some basic stuff for the semester. First, whoever is sitting next to you is your lab partner for the semester. If you’re by yourself, find another loner and pair up. If my math is correct, we shouldn’t have any groups of three. Second, with late work…”

That’s it. That’s what did it. That was the day Gajeel decided that the universe had it out for him. He had been conscious for all of three hours, and was already done with the day.

* * *

Lucy walked into AP Calculus nervous. She was the only person she knew taking this class. It was two grade levels ahead, and an honors course to top it off. Even Levy, the smartest person Lucy knew, was only in pre calculus. Lucy was not excited to spend another semester surrounded by seniors she didn’t know.

“Lucy!”

Lucy looked over to see that it was Erza who had called her name. And she was waving Lucy over.

“Oh, Erza! It’s good to see you! I didn’t know you were in this class,” Lucy said, sighing in relief and sitting next to her.

“Well, math isn’t exactly the main conversation topic when we’re together,” said Erza. “Where is your calculator? And notebook and pencil?” 

Lucy looked over her shoulder at Erza, lost. “Um? I’m getting them out right now?” The blonde was bent to the side in her chair, pulling her materials out of her backpack.

“Good. I hope you have the same dedication to math as I do. While Magnolia High may have a subpar math department, I swear I will make sure that the two of us, at least, come out of this course with an A.” Erza looked borderline terrifying as she held her hand over her heart and looked off in the distance. Lucy followed her gaze, but it was just a wall. She was more than a little afraid for her sanity in math.

Luckily, before Lucy had more time to contemplate her future, the bell rang and their teacher walked in. “What’s up, guys? I’m your math teacher, August. Don’t worry about putting a ‘Mr.’ in front, we’re all cool here. Let’s go ahead and get started, gang, with a fun little warm up.” August started writing a problem on the board and Erza copied it down as quickly as she could.

“Lucy? You aren’t following along with the lesson.” Lucy turned to see Erza glaring at her unopened notebook. Lucy gulped and started copying down what August was writing on the board, switching between looking at the board, what she was writing, and Erza.

“Alright, pals, go ahead and solve this! It shouldn’t be too hard for you guys, since it’s just review from last semester.” Almost as soon as the words had left August’s mouth did Erza raise her hand.

“I have solved it.” He seemed shocked, and walked over.

“Okay, let’s see what you’ve got going on here. Hmm…” The way August looked over Erza’s work gave both girls the impression that he was not confident in how to solve the problem. “Seems good to me!” He smiled and gave Erza a double thumbs up before walking over to another student who had also completed the problem.

“Is it just me, or…?”

Lucy nodded. “Yeah. He has no idea how to do this kind of math.”

* * *

Juvia was so sick of the guidance office. She wished there was something more interesting to look at than the gray walls covered in posters about college applications that she had read at least three times by then. She didn’t want to disrupt Gajeel from whatever class he was in, and she didn’t feel like trying to make friends with any of the other students around her. So she stood, back and shoulders aching from her backpack, and played Crossy Road on her phone.

She was glad she had skipped (the last ten minutes of) her last class because it meant she could get to her counselor sooner, and thus fix her schedule sooner. After a much shorter wait, as there were still people from first period who had not been dealt with, she was given her second period class: Japanese 5/6. 

Juvia walked up the stairs to upper B hall slowly, because she was tired, and the stairs sucked, and tardies didn’t count so no one cared if she was a little late. She was glad the administration understood how confusing the layout of MH was and gave students ample time to figure out where their classes were. Her first day, she was so lost she ended up in the trade school attached to MH itself. It was called the Precht Career Center and Juvia knew Gajeel had an automotive class over there that she was pleased he had taken. Of course, it didn’t help that there were no obvious signs pointing out the entrance to the second building, so he had gotten lost too. Not to mention the fact that many of the halls in MH turned and continued, so there were technically  _ two _ lower L and H halls. Thinking about it made Juvia’s brain hurt. Luckily, she had already arrived at her Japanese class.

She tested the doorknob and found that it was locked, so she knocked on the wooden part of the door next to the window. She could see the teacher finish whatever she had been saying before she opened the door for Juvia. 

“Tardiness is not fashionable in Japan, Miss Lockser,” she said, letting Juvia into the room.

“Sorry Ms. Ikaruga. My schedule is really messed up,” Juvia explained. 

Ms. Ikaruga sighed, knowing how deplorable the administration was at scheduling. “Ah. Well, go ahead and pick a seat, and your seatmate can bring you up to speed.” She went back to the front of the room and resumed her speech, which, for the billionth time in the short time Juvia had been in her class, was about word order. 

“Juvia!” someone hissed. Juvia looked around the room trying to see who it was. “Juvia! On your left!” She turned to her left to see a white haired girl waving her over. Why did everyone seem to know her name, but she didn’t know anyone else’s? Juvia set the thought aside and walked over to the girl who was now lightly patting the desk next to her, clearly wanting Juvia to sit there.

“I’m Lisanna. I’m in Fairy Tail with you!” Lisanna said, introducing herself.

“You know, you are the second person to introduce themselves to me with that exact sentence,” Juvia remarked, sitting next to Lisanna.

“Who was the first?”

“Gray.”

Lisanna nodded sagely, then seemed to remember what Ms. Ikaruga had instructed Juvia’s seatmate to do. “Oh! So, Ms. Ikaruga just—did you have her last semester?” Juvia nodded. “Ok, so it’s the same rules and stuff as last semester, and she gave us the syllabus.” Lisanna showed Juvia a pink piece of paper with ‘syllabus’ printed on the top. “You can take a picture of it if you’d like, or you can just ask for one. But, like, it’s not all that important so I guess you don’t really need it…”

Juvia laughed. “Thanks, but I think I’m good.” Lisanna grinned at her before turning to the front of the room and Juvia took the opportunity to text Gajeel that she had a second point. He may not want to make friends, but he  _ hated _ losing, so Juvia was pretty confident that if she made having friends a competition he would try to beat her. In fact, she was betting on it. 

* * *

“Nastu I swear to fucking god if you do not stop I will deck you right now.” Gray was done with Natsu’s antics. The pink haired boy was trying to see how many pencils he could stick into his friend’s hair, and it was currently seven, thanks to Gray’s hair gel. Instead of backing down like people who weren’t Natsu would, he grabbed another pencil and made to shove it into Gray’s hair. Before he could react, Gray ripped the pencil out of Natsu’s hand, snapped it in half, and threw it in the trash.

“Gray, Natsu, care to explain  _ this _ ?” their teacher asked, gesturing toward Gray’s hair and the trash can. 

“It was all him!” they both exclaimed, pointing at each other. 

Their teacher sighed, and shifted her gaze to the lavender haired girl sitting behind them. “Laki, could you please tell me the real story?”

“Sure, Ms. Seilah! Natsu started putting pencils in Gray’s hair and Gray warned him to stop. He didn’t, so Gray took the pencil away from him.”

“Thank you. Natsu, do I even want to ask why you were doing this?”

“Uh, I was bored?” he said, grinning sheepishly at her.

Ms. Seilah shook her head and sighed, walking away. “I feel like I’m teaching preschool,” she mumbled. Gray shot Natsu a glare, but the pencils in his hair made him look ridiculous and Natsu laughed as soon as he looked at him.

“Gray!”

Gray put down the pencil he was about to use to stab Natsu and smiled innocently at his teacher. “I  _ will _ get my revenge,” he seethed, keeping up the innocent act. Natsu chuckled in fear at the threat. Gray was not one to mess with, and no one knew that better than him.

* * *

“Miss Lockser, could you please translate this sentence?”

“The man went to the market and spent 1,395 yen,” Juvia answered.

“Oooh, nice! Numbers always trip me up,” Lisanna whispered.

“Me too. My trick is quadruple checking my answer before she calls on me.” 

Lisanna giggled at Juvia’s answer. She seemed like she was going to say something, but the bell interrupted her.

“Ugh, I’m off to guidance again. It’ll be a miracle if I make it to whatever my next class is supposed to be,” Juvia groaned.

“Yeesh. Oh! I’ll give you my number so you can text me! My next class is study hall, so I won’t have anything to do anyway!” Lisanna said, taking Juvia’s phone out of her hand and putting her number in. Her own phone buzzed, signifying that she had texted herself from Juvia’s phone. 

“Uh, thanks,” Juvia said as Lisanna gave her phone back. Lisanna simply waved in response and walked away. Well, getting her number was totally another point, so suck it, Gajeel!

_ Guess who just got a third point! At this rate, I’ll cream you _

__ **_what is this, a competition?_ **

__ _ Yup! _

**** **_then u know u wont win_ **

**** **_wait_ **

**** **_damn u, rainwoman_ **

**** **_i hate u_ **

**** _ I love you too! <3 _

__ **_i hope u die in guidance_ **

**** _ ;) _

* * *

Levy speed walked to Latin as fast as her tiny legs could go. She blew past her teacher’s “Salve” and threw her bag down on a desk in the front row. Erza, who was sitting at the desk next to Levy’s, jumped at the noise. “I need your help, Titania,” she gasped out.

Erza cocked an eyebrow and looked at Levy’s flushed face. She was either very embarrassed or very angry. “Titania? So this is Fairy Tail business?”

Levy nodded, trying to get enough air in her system to ward off any impending asthma attack. “You know Gajeel?” she asked.

“Only in passing. I haven’t had a conversation with him yet.”

“Well, I just had AP Chem with him, and he is absolutely  _ infuriating _ !” Levy cried, throwing her hands in the air. “I tried to talk to him and Juvia at front loading but he blew me off, and then I sat next to him last period so I could try again but he kept moving seats. He only stopped when Mr. Azuma walked in, and now we’re lab partners.  _ Then _ , he said he didn’t want to be my friend, and when Mr. Azuma started lecturing, he didn’t pay any attention! I offered to help him with the problems but he had already done them! And they were right!”

“Levy, it’s not a crime to be naturally gifted at something, although I do not condone him ignoring the teacher. What exactly do you expect me to do?” Erza asked.

The blue haired Fairy huffed, clearly having expected Erza to jump into action. “I don’t know, but surely there’s something we can do to get him to open up.”

“Hmm. You have a point,” Erza mused, rubbing her chin. “Loke and Cana will be assigning Bigs and Littles today, and I don’t think the numbers work out quite right. There should end up being one group of three. Perhaps I could ask them to consider putting Gajeel in that group of three, or with someone who can pull him out of his shell.”   
“Forced interaction! Genius! That’s why I named you Titania!”

Erza laughed. “And here I thought it was because you had just finished  _ A Midsummer Night’s Dream _ and the connection was too good to pass up.”

“Well, that too. But you should text them right now!”

“Actually, Miss McGarden, Miss Scarlet will not be texting anyone right now. Class has just started, you see.”

Levy turned to see her Latin teacher standing to her left. “Oh, uh hi, Mr. Cracy. Sorry.” He smiled at her and walked to the board, beginning the lesson. Levy forced herself to relax. There was a plan in place, so there was no reason to worry. All she had to do was wait. But, Levy was never good at waiting, so she slipped her phone out of her pocket and texted Erza.

_ I know you want to focus in class, so can you give me Cana and Loke’s numbers? _

__ Erza subtly pulled her phone out of her backpack and into her lap and read the text. She replied without looking down to type.  **_I thought you already had them._ **

**** _ Natsu accidentally broke my phone a few months ago and I lost all my contacts _

__ **_Ah. Do you want me to punish him?_ **

**** **_Erza Scarlet sent a contact: Cana Alberona_ **

**** **_Erza Scarlet sent a contact: Loke Regulus_ **

**** _ Thanks! And no, he beat himself up about it pretty nicely _

__ **_Very well._ ** Erza dropped her phone back into her bag and Levy made a group chat with Cana and Loke.

_ Hey guys! It’s Levy! Erza and I were talking and noticed that Gajeel (new member from Phantom Lord, tall, long black hair, piercings) doesn’t really want to make friends. Like, he told me that to my face. Anyway, since you guys are assigning bigs and littles today we thought it would be a good idea to partner him up with someone who could bring him out of his shell or something. E says that there will be a group of three based on numbers, so maybe that’s another option?  _

__ Loke’s reply was almost instant.  _ of course babe! we were struggling pairing him up anyways, so thanks for the tip beautiful! _

_ Loke, remember what Cana said? No flirting with FT girls _

__ _ i just can’t help it! _

__ **_Loke i WILL castrate you_ **

**** **_also Lev that’s a great plan! any ideas who we should put him with?_ **

**** _ Not really...maybe the most outgoing person you can think of? Or someone he wouldn’t mind talking to? _

__ _ uhhhhhh cc??? i was looking at our list and we only have 2 ppl left to match up w him _

**_why the fuck do you call me cc when there’s only one c in my name? and then we’d better hope those two people can get him to open up_ **

**** _ there may be some external forces helping but it should be fine? _

_ Great! Thank you so much guys!!! _

__ **_no problem Lev!_ **

**** _ np baby ;) _

**_Loke your balls are mine_ **

**** _ AAAAAAAAAA IM SORRY PLEASE DONT TAKE MY BALLS _

Levy held in a snicker at her dance captains’ antics and slid her phone back into her pocket. “Plan is a go,” she whispered to Erza. Her seatmate nodded in return. They were going to make Gajeel have friends, even if it killed him.

* * *

Juvia debated whether or not to text Lisanna. Sure, her new friend had told her to, and she didn’t have much to do since it was study hall on the first day of the semester, but Juvia didn’t want to bug her. Maybe Lisanna was just being nice and didn’t actually want Juvia to text her. Or maybe she did it because she felt bad for Juvia, being new and having no friends.Yeah, that was it. Lisanna gave Juvia her number out of pity. It wasn’t like it hadn’t happened before. So, logically, Juvia wouldn't text her because she would just be pushing herself on this stranger. She pulled her phone out to retract her third point from Gajeel when she got a text from Lisanna.

**_I think someone is painting their nails in here_ **

**** **_I can smell the nail polish_ **

**** No way! Lisanna had texted Juvia first!  _ What? That’s crazy! Hahaha _

__ **_I’m gonna see if i can figure out who it is_ **

**** **_Judging from how strong the smell is, they've gotta be close_ **

**** _ Maybe pretend to stretch and look around? _

__ **_Smart!_ **

**** **_NO FUCKING WAY ITS MY BROTHERS GF_ **

**** **_also i cracked my neck ow_ **

**** _ Who’s your brother? And his girlfriend, I suppose _

__ **_Elfman. Big and muscle-y with white hair and is ALWAYS talking about being manly_ **

**_He’s in FT_ **

**** **_And he’s dating Evergreen. She’s in FT too, and lowkey tries to copy Erza. She’s mostly grown out of that, thank god_ **

__ _ Copy Erza how? From my limited experience with her, she’s one of a kind _

__ **_Oh ya lmao she is_ **

**** **_But Levy calls her Titania (queen of the fairies, which is ADORABLE) and Ever insists she's more fairy-like than Erza_ **

**** _ I don’t think you necessarily have to be a fairy to be the queen of them, and Erza is such a natural-born leader that I can totally see her as a queen _

__ **_FACTS!!!_ **

**** **_Everyone knew she was gonna be copres so no one ran against her_ **

**** _ What about Jellal (I think that’s his name)? _

__ **_Makarov likes to have a male and female copres_ **

**** **_Same with dance captains_ **

**** **_That way, when we do sleepovers and stuff, there’s an authority figure for both groups (bc Mak doesn’t let us have one big one, party pooper)_ **

**** _ Oh, that makes sense _

__ _ I’m about to go see my counselor, gtg! _

__ **_Good luck J!_ **

**** Okay, so maybe Juvia was totally wrong and Lisanna wanted to be friends and didn’t have an ulterior motive. In hindsight, that was exactly why she and Gajeel had switched schools. They had heard rumors that at Magnolia High, people were genuinely nice. Perhaps those rumors were true after all.

* * *

“The name’s Wally.”

“Gajeel.” The two were leaning over the engine of the car they were assigned to work on. They had been told the engine wouldn’t turn over. “Where do you wanna start?”

“Battery’s always a good one to check first,” Wally said, grabbing a voltmeter from a nearby cart. Gajeel took off the terminal covers and moved aside to let his partner connect the positive and negative leads to their respective terminals. “What’s it read?”

Gajeel craned his neck to look at the voltmeter that was between Wally’s arms. “12.6. Perfectly fine.” Wally pulled the leads back and let Gajeel cover the terminals back up.

“You wanna check the spark plug next?” 

Gajeel shrugged at Wally’s suggestion. “Fine with me.”

For the next hour, they checked various parts of the engine to figure out why it wouldn’t turn over, only to find everything in peak condition. Gajeel was at a loss. There absolutely should have been something wrong with the engine, but there wasn’t. He was tempted to double check everything, but he knew they were right. The only option left was to consult their teacher.

“Hey, Mr. Sawyer,” Gajeel said, walking over to where his teacher was working with another pair of students.

“Ah, Gajeel. What’s up?”

“Me ‘n Wally went over everything and took everything apart, but we can’t find a single thing wrong with the engine.”

“Hmm. Show me.” At his teacher’s command, Gajeel led him back to the engine, which Wally was almost done putting back together. “And what engine do you have?”

“2A,” Wally answered.

“If memory serves, I told you that the engine wasn’t turning over.” Gajeel and Wally nodded. “Did you check for yourself?” The boys froze. Mr. Sawyer laughed. 

“I see what the issue is, then. You just assumed I was correct in stating the engine wouldn’t turn over and that there must be something wrong with it. But really, it was just cold outside. The engine didn’t turn over correctly at first because of that. And let’s say that, hypothetically, I was a customer at your auto shop who had not driven in cold weather before. If I was used to the engine always turning over, I would assume something was wrong. However, I would bet good money that the engine is completely fine.” He proved his point by entering the car and turning the key in the ignition. The engine turned over and the car started.

Gajeel and Wally shared a look. They had been schooled.

“Boys, I should hope you’ve learned what I was trying to teach. Always check for yourself before believing what anyone says. They may be wrong and not even know it.” And with that parting statement, Mr. Sawyer walked away.

“God, what a tool,” Wally grumbled.

“Fuckin’ prick,” Gajeel said at the same time. They looked at each other and paused before grinning. Perhaps Juvia would not win their little competition after all. Juvia 3, Gajeel 1.

* * *

“NATSU COME DOWN FROM THERE! YOU’RE GONNA HURT YOURSELF!” Bob cried. 

“Eh, he’s fine.”

“Are you sure Romeo? He’s pretty high up there. I thought you said he had a fear of heights?” a freshman asked.

“Oh, shit. NATSU COME DOWN! LISTEN TO MASTER BOB!”

Natsu, as he always did, had gotten himself into an impossible situation. For two and a half long years, the curtains in the auditorium tempted him, begging him to climb them. He had managed to hold off on the urge, but that day he had enough. So, he climbed one, despite his fear of heights.

“SOMEBODY GET ME DOWN!”

“I’m coming!” Romeo looked to see the freshman he was talking to charge toward the curtain next to Natsu’s and practically fly up it. He grabbed onto Natsu’s arm and said something to him before inching down, ever so slowly, and taking Natsu with him. It didn’t take long for the two of them to land safely on the ground, where Master Bob was waiting angrily.

“Natsu! What were you thinking?!” he cried.

“I wasn’t, actually,” Natsu replied sheepishly.

“Clearly!”

“I’m sorry, Master, I just couldn’t help myself! I  _ had _ to climb it!”

Bob sighed. “Of course. I’ll let it slide this time, since you freaked yourself out, but you don’t get ‘Master Bob’ privileges for a week.”

“Awww!”

He sighed again and walked away. 

“Oh, hey, thanks for helping me out there, man!” Natsu said, talking to the freshman. 

“It was no problem!”

“What’s your name?”

“Happy!”

“Happy?” Romeo asked.

“Yup! Apparently, my parents were so happy when they had me that they named me Happy!”

“THAT’S SO COOL!” Natsu exclaimed. “Also, I like your beanie. It’s a nice shade of blue.”

“Do you not get dress coded for it?” Romeo added.

“Actually, all the time,” Happy said, laughing. “Everytime someone calls me out I take it off, then put it back on once they turn around.” Natsu and Romeo laughed with him.

“But seriously, thanks for helping me out Happy. I owe you,” Natsu said.

“I told you, it’s cool. No biggie.”

“Nah, I’ve gotta do something to repay you.”

“Uh, okay then, tell me what Bob meant by ‘Master Bob’ privileges.”

“Aha! A good story!” Natsu began. “So, when I was in eighth grade, I saw MH’s production of  _ The Little Mermaid _ . I was totally blown away by all the props and the sets and the lighting, the whole shebang, really. It was the coolest thing I had ever seen. When I got here, I immediately wanted to be a part of that, so I took tech theatre. Bob was the teacher and as soon as I met him I told him all about how awesome the show was and how I wanted to do stuff like that too. He was so excited by me being excited that he showed me some of the set pieces and I was like ‘You’re a master at this! You’re Master Bob!’ and everyone heard me say that and decided it was a good nickname, so now pretty much everyone on tech calls him ‘Master Bob.’”

“That’s so cool!” Happy exclaimed.

“It’s a good story,” Romeo said, sagely. 

“Natsu! Get your ass over here!” Warren, the student helper, called. “And stop climbing shit!”

“Gotta go!”

* * *

Loke and Cana were already in the choir room when Erza entered. The dance captains were standing by the piano, deep in conversation. 

“How’s the plan going?” Loke and Cana literally jumped.

“Holy  _ shit _ Erza!”

“Don’t sneak up on us like that!”

“Oops!” Erza giggled. “But how is it?”

“Great!”

“Not good.”

Erza raised an eyebrow. 

“CC, stop talking when I do! And the plan’s going great Erza, don’t you worry!” Loke said. 

“Wrong, there’s no way those two will be able to befriend Gajeel. He’s more likely to eat them.”

“Then why do you think I said ‘external forces’ when we were texting Levy, huh?”

“Hold on, who are you putting Gajeel with, and what do you mean ‘external forces’?” Erza demanded.

Loke opened his mouth to explain when the bell rang and the choir room filled up with the rest of Fairy Tail’s members. “Ugh, I’ll explain later.” The three waited in front of the class as Jellal joined them.

“Good afternoon, my children!” Makarov said, making his entrance. “Today, we’re going to start learning the vocals to the songs. I’m going to start passing out the sheet music while the co-presidents and dance captains make some announcements.” He picked up a humongous stack of papers off of the piano and sectioned them out, giving the stacks to the people sitting on the ends of the risers.

“Hey, everybody!” Cana began. “So, every year, we assign what we call ‘Bigs and Littles.’ Bigs are returning Fairy Tail members, and Littles are new members. The Big’s job is to show their Little the ropes of Fairy Tail and help them get used to everything.”

“The most fun part of all of this, aside from new friends, is that Bigs are supposed to surprise their Little with a gift when they reveal themselves,” Loke said, taking over. “Cana and I have already paired everyone up, so see us after class, or text us. Our numbers are on the board.” He gestured to the whiteboard on the side wall, where Cana had just finished writing their numbers. Quite a few new members pulled out their phones to add the new contacts.

“Also, next Saturday at 3pm, we are having our first choir bonding event of show choir season!” Erza exclaimed. “We will be ice skating at Tearm Rink, which is owned and operated by a Magnolia High choir family, and they kindly allowed us private use of the rink for free.”

“After skating,” Jellal continued, “we will be having a sleepover. The girls’ sleepover will be at Laki’s house and the boys’ will be at Loke’s. At either half, Bigs are expected to give their Little their gift. That’s everything, I believe.” He looked at Erza, Cana, and Loke, who all nodded.

“Wait!” Erza said, remembering. “There’s one group of three, with two Bigs and one Little, since the numbers didn’t match up perfectly.  _ Now _ that’s everything.”

“Thank you!” Makarov said, applauding them. They moved to their seats. “Now, we’re going to start with some vocal warmups, before we dive into the set.”

* * *

Gajeel was glad Fairy Tail was over and he could go back to being alone. Before and after class, people had approached him and tried to talk with him. He was tired of people trying to make friends with him. He already had one, and counting Wally made two. That was plenty.

“Gajeel!” He turned to see Levy waving him over. He sighed and continued walking toward the back wall of the cafeteria that had a counter stretching the entire wall. He could be alone there.

Just as he was about to sit down, another voice called his name. “Gajeel!” He rolled his eyes and looked to see that it was Erza that had called his name. Hmm. Well, that put a wrench in things. She was scary. Just a bit. A tad. A smidge...a whole-fucking-lot. Gajeel was not keen on incurring her wrath. So, he did what she wanted and walked toward her.

Pleased, she gestured to the table. “Sit,” she said sweetly, with a smile that said otherwise. He grabbed the chair on the end, the furthest one from everyone else, and dropped his bag. He pulled out his student ID and got in line for lunch, right behind the Natsu kid from Spanish that morning.

“Hey!”

Gajeel grunted in response. 

“Not even gonna talk to me?”

He grunted again, with a slightly different inflection.

“Rude.” Natsu turned back around and bought his lunch, and Gajeel followed suit. He plopped his tray unceremoniously on the table and began eating, not really caring that the food was less than great.

“Hi Gajeel!” Levy exclaimed, sitting down right next to him. 

Deciding that the conversation with Natsu went pretty well, Gajeel took his grunting approach again.

“Not gonna talk?”

Another grunt.

“Rude, but fine.” Levy nodded. “Ok, you don’t have to talk if you don’t want to.” Huh? This was totally different than how she had been in AP Chem. But whatever, if she wasn’t gonna make him talk, he wasn’t gonna talk. Instead, he opted for biting into the mini hamburger on his tray and watching the rest of the table. 

Erza, a blonde girl, a shirtless kid, Jellal, and Natsu filled up every seat but one, which was directly in front of Gajeel. He supposed Juvia could sit there, if she ever made it to lunch. She had told him she was still caught up in guidance, which was why she had missed choir, too.

“Gray, where is your shirt?” Blondie asked, glaring at the shirtless kid.

“Shit!” he cried, hurriedly grabbing it off the floor and putting it back on.

“Anyway, Lucy, what’s that?” Natsu asked, pointing at a container of various fruits in front of Blondie’s pink lunch box.

She looked at him like he was an idiot. “Fruit salad.”

“Yummy, yummy,” Gajeel said absentmindedly. Everyone’s heads whipped toward him in unison (Gildarts would have been astounded by how clean the move was). “What?”

“Did you just—did you just reference The Wiggles?” Gray managed to get out. His eyes were so big they nearly popped out of his head. 

“Yeah. What about it?”

“Nothing, it’s just,  _ shocking _ , for lack of better word,” Erza said. 

Gajeel huffed and turned back to his tray, clearly not wanting to talk anymore.

“Ok, well, what  _ is _ fruit salad? Like, I thought salads had to have lettuce in them?” Natsu asked.

Lucy sighed. “Not all salads have lettuce, Natsu.”

* * *

“Bye Romeo!”

“Bye Wendy!” The two sophomores said in unison, turning to enter the same classroom.

“Wait, what?” Wendy asked, stopping in front of the door.

“Ha! I guess we have this class together!” Romeo exclaimed, gesturing for Wendy to enter the room first. 

“I can’t believe we didn’t think to compare schedules at lunch.”

“We could do that now,” he pointed out, sitting in a random seat.

“Good point!” Wendy said, sitting next to him and pulling out her schedule. “Oh, we have next period together too!”

Romeo groaned. “Please tell me you’re good at history. I suck, but my dad made me take the AP class anyway.”

“I’ve got you, don’t worry.”

Two claps from the doorway startled the pair, as well as the rest of the class. “Welcome to second semester English. For those of you that don’t already know, I’m Ms. Hilda, your teacher. This semester, we will focus on theme and imagery, beginning with  _ Macbeth _ by William Shakespeare and ending with  _ Key of the Starry Heavens _ by Will Neville. A “Will” semester, if you will.” She had crossed the room during her spiel and reached her desk. She held up a stack of papers. “But, before we dive into the semester’s work, I would like to see your writing styles. I will pass out these random prompts, ranging from creative writing to argumentative essays, and you will respond to the prompt to the best of your abilities. I will collect them at the end of class.”

Romeo’s hand shot up. “Is this for a grade?”

“No.” The entire class sighed with relief. “Now, begin.”

Wendy immediately started writing but Romeo just stared at the paper in front of him. ‘ _ Explain how to win a hand of poker. _ ’ He had never played a game of poker in his life. What the hell was he supposed to do with this essay prompt he knew nothing about? He had been hoping to get a creative writing prompt (a glance at Wendy’s paper showed she did, and was two paragraphs deep into a story about a girl named Wendelle who had wind magic and her friend Charlotte who was a flying and talking cat).

Sighing, he started writing. “ _ The first step of winning a poker hand is knowing how to play the game, which I don’t. So, instead, I am borrowing my friend’s prompt (write a story in which one of the characters has magic) and will tell you the tale of Remus, a rainbow fire wizard. _ ” This may end up being the worst essay he’d ever written, but he was at least going to have fun with it.

* * *

Levy was on her last nerve. Sure, she loved Jet and Droy with her whole heart, but sometimes they annoyed her  _ so much _ . They were currently looking over her shoulders at the work she was doing.

“Sit down!” she hissed at them, not wanting August to hear. “I am trying to work here!”

“Sorry Levy, it’s just so cool to watch all the gears in your head turn,” Jet said, pulling back.

“I don’t know how to do this problem, can you help me?” Droy asked, pointing to the one Levy had just completed.

“You need help? You know I’m always here for you, Droy!” August cried, suddenly appearing. “Which problem is giving you a problem?” He laughed at his own joke.

“Oh, uh, actually, I think I just figured it out.” August looked sad but walked away. Jet snickered over Levy’s head.

“Nice try,” he mouthed.

Droy was halfway through his “fuck you” when Levy sat up, blocking their view of each other’s mouths.

“I got it! Normally I hate math, but for whatever reason this trigonometry stuff makes more sense!” she said, grinning at the boys. They eagerly gave her smiles and thumbs up before glaring at each other over her head once she leaned back down. She, of course, was not as oblivious to their crushes on her as they thought, but she didn’t particularly want to ruin their friendships by rejecting them. 

The bell rang, and Levy left her triangle-shaped prison cell as quickly as she could so she could meet up with Lucy and Natsu and walk to the student parking lot together. Jet and Droy tried to keep up with her, but being small meant that she could slip through the crowds of MH much more easily than they could and she quickly lost them.

“Levy!” Lucy called, waving at her from a slightly emptier spot in the hallway. Levy made a beeline for her.

“Hey! Where’s Natsu?”

“Here!” he called, coming from the hall next to where Levy’s math class had just been. “Let’s go home!” The trio made their way to the student parking lot, joining the flow of students leaving the school.

“Shit it’s cold! I regret leaving my coat in my car,” Lucy moaned.

“Feels fine to me!” Natsu said, showing off his lack of goosebumps.

“Yeah, well some of us actually feel the cold, Mr. T-shirt-And-Shorts-In-20-Degree-Weather.”

“Ooh, get him!” Levy laughed, approving of her friend’s roast. “Alright, I’ll see you guys tomorrow.” Levy lovingly patted the hood of her bright orange VW bug and waved as her friends walked away.

“Bye Levy!”

“Bye Lev, see you in English!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> God this chapter was wayyyyyyy longer than I had intended, and I’m not super sure why. I guess because I hit some periods multiple times and screwed myself over in the process. I have no idea if the other chapters will end up being this long or not, but I can tell you they will have a much more similar feel to this chapter than the first.
> 
> There wasn’t a whole lot of choir-ness in this chapter, mainly because a) it’s like that in real life and b) I was not about to make this chapter longer than 10k. I promise next chapter will have more, as well as some fun character interactions I skipped in this boy because of, again, length. 
> 
> I made some fun shots at my school in this since the stairs and scheduling really do suck, as well as the building being confusing for a lot of people (even though all the halls are labeled and it’s pretty much a grid, so idk why they’re getting lost. Insert John Mulaney quote here). 
> 
> I’m looking for a beta, so if you are/know a beta who would like to work with me, PM me on ffn!
> 
> As always, feel free to leave a review or check out my other stories that are on here! Everything is crossposted to ffn/AO3.
> 
> -nerman


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